I started asking this question on Twitter a couple weeks ago, in order to gather some ideas and thoughts from my online friends for this post.

Most of the comments suggested that it was the latter – that narcissists were drawn to social media. That makes sense and is a comforting idea. All those people bragging all the time on Facebook were simply attracted to the medium for that reason… But is it true?

All the teenage girls taking a self-photo with their smartphones… were already narcissistic? All of the people extending their Christmas-letter-bragging to a year-round activity on FB?

I know my behavior is different when on social media. After my university asked alums about professors who had changed their lives, I was asked to be in a promotional video. I told very few of my real world friends and colleagues about it, and when I did I carefully worked it into the conversation as an aside. But on Facebook and Twitter I shouted “CHECK OUT the new promotional video at this link –>”.

Having met some of my social media friends in person, I know that they are also reasonably modest in person, unlike their social media personas. So I am confident that social media affects behavior at least online. My worry is whether it then spills over into the non-online world.

I blog quite often and I truly thank you for your
information. This article has truly peaked my interest.
I am going to book mark your blog and keep checking for new details about once per week.
I subscribed to your RSS feed as well.